Worldwide petition collects 103,000 signatures to end Hong Kong helper abuse

Human rights groups have collected 103,307 signatures from more than 160 countries calling on the Hong Kong government to take immediate steps to stop the abuse of foreign domestic workers.

Workers' rights campaigners flew in from Africa, India, Nepal and elsewhere to present the petition to the government in Tamar yesterday.

"It is time to tell the government that not just we, but people from over the world, want the government to stop the abuse of workers," said Elizabeth Tang Yin-ngor, general secretary of the International Domestic Workers Federation.

The petition started when news of the alleged abuse of Indonesian domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih broke in January.

Signatures were collected through the internet and on the street by the federation, Amnesty International, the Confederation of Trade Unions and Walk Free, a movement dedicated to ending modern slavery.

The organisers urged the government to set up a body that would take on the responsibility of collecting recruitment fees from workers before distributing the money to the recruitment agencies, preventing workers from being overcharged.